Not Til 1909

Coinage honoring kings and tyrants were relics of the Old World, something foreign to these shores. This was a constitutional republic, one that respected laws and not the public servants who administered that law.

Before 1909, not a single coin put out by the U.S. Mint contained the image of an actual person.

In 1909, the first year of the Taft presidency, the Lincoln penny made its appearance. But the wheels had been put in motion for the design years before during the administration of that most "Progressive" of Republican presidents, Theodore Roosevelt. No doubt Teddy, a man who nurtured the lore about his own-self, would have loved the coin to have been of perhaps another president. But these were the days of decorum and avoidance of shame, and so it simply would not have been proper for that sort of presidential deference if not reverence.

Over the years our coins started to lose the images of Liberty and American Indians in various poses, to be replaced by respected presidents and founders. So it's not too surprising to see that the notion that we were a nation of laws and not of men started to become a foreign concept to the children of today -- or even those my own generation. Those of our coins that carried that implication are now essentially out of circulation.

Is the noble concept they implied now also lost to antiquity?

Look how far you have "progressed" America. It's not about coinage and dead presidents any longer. Aren't you proud?



********* UPDATE 10/17/09 ***********

The notorious "mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm, Barach Hussein Obama" School-Children Indoctrination Worship Song was blocked, apparently due to the extreme embarrassment it gave to the President who was simultaneously just overcoming the infamous "I am God's Partner in matters of life and death" that he had been overheard saying.

So here is a new version. If anyone notices that this one is also removed, please inform me. Thanks.